Loafers Lodge evacuee, Simon Hanify talks to the NZ Herald. Video / NZ Herald
As police enter Loafers Lodge, business security experts say companies increasingly want ways to protect data and CCTV footage if fire or other catastrophes strike.
The hostel fire in Wellington’s Adelaide Rd has killed at least six people and is being treated as a possible arson.
Firefighters handed the sceneover to police today and security camera footage from the hostel and nearby may well be of interest to investigations.
But some private sector experts say many Kiwi businesses still seem to use CCTV cameras with no or minimal back-up and storage.
Private investigator Julia Hartley Moore said backing up CCTV footage was vital for companies, and the tragic fire reinforced that.
She said people sometimes “freaked out” about associated privacy and surveillance issues but security cameras were often essential to solving crimes.
“It should be subsidised because it’s actually in everyone’s interest.”
The Privacy Act governs some related issues - and outlaws what is termed “highly offensive use” of security cameras.
Cameron Hansen from data recovery and digital forensics specialists Datalab said it was wise for companies to have a “playbook” for how to cope with catastrophe.
“You would have an earthquake, fire, or a homicide and could be locked out of the building,” Hansen said.
Workers in PPE picking up debris from the scene at the Loafers Lodge fire in Wellington on Tuesday afternoon. Photo / George Heard
“You’d have a back-up management plan, that you would be able to replicate core servers and functions off-site within a given time.”
He said most off-site CCTV had limited cloud storage. But in an entry-level model, even if the entire unit was destroyed, the first 12 hours could be accessible.
“I would say it’s getting exponentially cheaper. Cloud storage is peanuts. A decent CCTV system is peanuts.”
Datalab was sometimes assigned to recover fire-damaged CCTV units.
“They’re like a charred bunch of charcoal,” Hansen added. “Typically a server might just see smoke damage.”
But thousands of litres of water added to the mix caused even more damage.
Despite talk of a pandemic cloud boom, Hansen said businesses often moved to remote work models and IT back-up systems in shambolic fashion.
“My interpretation is Covid initiated the Wild West.”
Some small businesses might worry about the costs of bolstering security systems.
Omega Investigations managing director and former police detective Phil Jones has been involved with several fire investigations, including arson inquiries.
“I’ve had experience of them recovering more of the footage, even when it’s a burnt, mangled mess.”
Police at the scene of the fatal fire in Adelaide Rd. Photo / Mark Mitchell
Jones said despite the increasing use of cloud software in society, many small and medium-sized companies still used on-site hard drives only, with no cloud storage back-up.
Not all crimes are dramatic or immediately obvious - and Jones advised businesses to keep a month’s worth of footage, because it could take time to know a crime had actually occurred.
Jones said recognition software was increasingly common. The term “facial recognition” was outmoded in this context because this technology could recognise gait, voice and other unique characteristics.
The technology was controversial due to concerns over privacy and potential misuse, but Jones said it could be helpful to find missing people.
He said remotely viewable security cameras were also increasingly common, in commercial and residential settings.
That technology let people remotely monitor activity at their home or workplace, even if in a different town or country.
